England Dominate Australia on Day One

Anderson Swings Through Australia's Old Guard

By

Michael Atherton: The Times

Updated Dec. 3, 2010 7:53 a.m. ET

The opening moments of any Ashes test are always pregnant with tension—anxiety and nervousness, as well as excitement, being the overwhelming emotions of any cricketer involved, regardless of age or experience. These heightened sensations bring opportunities for the team and the individuals best able to channel those feelings into something resembling normality and, today, that team was England and the individual was
James Anderson.

Australia's attack leader might be sitting this game out but there is no question about the health of England's. Mr. Anderson has taken to his responsibilities superbly so far and he led an outstanding all-round display from England, with the ball and in the field, so that on a blameless Adelaide pitch they bowled out Australia for 245, an outcome beyond even the imagination of this confident team.

ENLARGE

England's James Anderson, left, celebrates with teammates after dismissing Australia's captain Ricky Ponting for no runs during the second Ashes cricket test in Adelaide, Australia.
Associated Press

After Mr. Anderson's luckless display at the Gabba, it felt just that the wheel of fortune should turn so quickly here. It turned almost before the echoes of the pre-match national anthems had stopped reverberating around the stadium,
Ricky Ponting
and
Michael Clarke
victims of Anderson's accuracy and late movement with the new ball, once
Simon Katich
had betrayed the home team's nerves by being run-out in the opening over without facing a ball.

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After that start, Mr. Anderson continued to probe, adding
Shane Watson,
driving loosely to gully, to his bag just after lunch, and
Peter Siddle,
with the second new ball.

Four wickets in all and nothing less than he deserved. One man's work though is easily squandered, and yesterday was a day of collective excellence from England's bowlers, only
Steven Finn
not quite hitting the zone, leaking a boundary an over in his opening spell.

Mr. Finn aside, England's bowlers went at 2.4 runs per over, an outstanding effort on a good batting pitch against a team that, while low on confidence, like to keep the score rattling. Only
Mike Hussey
and
Brad Haddin,
the heroes of Brisbane, broke England's shackles to any degree. Australia would have been in an unholy mess without these two, Mr. Hussey building on his wonderful start to the series at the Gabba with another telling contribution here, and Mr. Haddin, playing selflessly and left stranded by a tail that, without
Mitchell Johnson,
looks feeble.

Mr. Haddin was the last man to go, hooking high into the deep, with just the last man for company. There was an uncanny resemblance to Mr. Hussey's performance at Brisbane, in the small amounts of good fortune he needed before he had reached double figures and then in the utter conviction with which he played. He was dropped by Anderson on his follow through when he had scored just three, a return chance that, whilst tough, was within the bowler's range and capabilities—if only because he is one of the most agile fielders in world cricket and because England set such high standards of themselves in that area.

Yesterday was another example of that, too, the athleticism and ground fielding at times better than any England team in recent memory, each moment of individual excellence visibly appreciated by the rest with ostentatious displays of touchy-feeliness.

Every catch bar Mr. Anderson's half-chance was taken and two run-outs affected, the second by Mr. Strauss at mid-wicket to send back
Xavier Doherty
a perfect example of the kind of panic that athletic and aggressive fielding can impart upon an uncertain batting team. England have worked furiously at this aspect of their game, and they enjoyed the rewards yesterday.

Apart from one further driven edge that fell just short of Mr. Swann at second slip, Mr. Hussey played flawlessly. At his best, and now that he seems to have erased the pre-series doubts from his mind, there is something relentless about his game, the way he strides purposefully to the crease, the busy nature with which he attaches himself to it and, when set, the seeming inevitability about his journey towards three figures.

It was a journey cut seven short of its destination by Mr. Swann who, until that point, had come off second best in the duel. Mr. Swann did what finger spinners have to do on the opening day of an Adelaide test; that is to say, he bowled accurately and, with the mercury nudging upwards, he allowed his seam-bowling mates plenty of rest. He also bowled a more teasing length than in Brisbane, and it was one such delivery, floated high and tempting outside off stump, that encouraged Mr. Hussey to drive into the hands of slip.

A ball later he was on a hat-trick, although
Ryan Harris,
leg-before, could be justifiably upset that the third umpire decided to ignore the evidence of an inside edge. Mr. Hussey's wicket was the perfect adornment to the most dramatic start to an Ashes Test in living memory. You have to be long in the tooth to remember a worse start for Australia—60 years ago, to be precise, in Brisbane where they found themselves three down without a run on the board. Yesterday, they were three down in a flash, although a brace of runs had come from Mr. Clarke's bat by the time that he, Mr. Ponting and Mr. Katich were all contemplating their fate from the sanctity of the dressing room.

Mr. Katich's dismissal put in train a sequence of events scarcely believable. Mr. Anderson's fourth ball scooted off Mr. Watson's pad into the leg side, whereupon the opener set off for what, by his body language, he took to be a leisurely single. Ball watching, Mr. Watson had not sensed the reluctance of his partner to move, so that as
Jonathan Trott
picked up the ball at square-leg, both openers were dallying mid-pitch. Mr. Trott took aim at the one stump in his sights and, one direct hit later, Mr. Katich was stomping back to the pavilion.

Mr. Katich and Mr. Watson have formed a decent opening partnership, but their running between the wickets leaves much to be desired: too self-absorbed to bother about the other, grumbled one local. One ball later, Australia were 0-2. Mr. Ponting had been cheerful enough, almost whimsical at the toss, as he cast his eye over the conditions and the glory that is the Adelaide Oval, a cheery disposition reinforced when he called correctly.

But there was grass enough on the surface, which prompted him to wonder aloud whether there would be a little swing with the new ball. There was, just enough for Anderson to catch the edge of his uncertain forward lunge to second slip. For all the talk of the perfect Adelaide pitch, it was Mr. Anderson who was pitch perfect, producing a lovely, late outswinger to Mr. Clarke now, whose stiff-legged forward push also ended up in the hands of Mr. Swann. Only six deliveries for Mr. Clarke, but long enough to reveal again his discomfort to the short ball—
Stuart Broad
producing one that rapped the batsman on the glove—and how terribly out of sorts he appears to be.

For Mr. Clarke, read Australia on day one. Mr. Ponting knew it, too, as he walked off grousing with Mr. Strauss at the close of play. His demeanour, in contrast to that at the toss, was thundery. His team's bowling had caused him pain at Brisbane, now the batting.

This was Mr. Anderson's and England's day, convincingly, and a bad one for Australia.

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